Thursday, May 29, 2008

Ok, as you pick yourselves up from the floor we hope that you will keep reading, as there is alot of story to tell.

First of all, we wanted to tell you all in person that we were adopting, but we decided from the beginning (over the summer) that we would wait until after Christmas. We wanted Hudson (Denise's nephew) to be born and let him and his mom and dad enjoy the spotlight of his "first Christmas". It became an even harder secret to keep once we had a referral, which we didn't expect until Jan or Feb. Frankly, we are amazed that the kids haven't spilled the beans since they have know from the beginning. We opted to reveal this news to you via this website so that you can have a chance to read the whole story, see the fingerprints of God on it, and have time to digest it.

We decided shortly after bringing Molly home that we would "probably" adopt again. The experience of growing our family through adoption was nothing short of an amazing miracle. Our family was forever changed by this and we will never be the same- our kids will never be the same. Addie had been telling us for a couple of years now, that she had siblings in Africa. She would just casually bring this up at dinner, or mention it in her prayers at bedtime. It always caught us off guard, made us choke a bit on what we were eating, and we would smile and say "wow, that is great". Tom and I had talked about adopting again before, but the answer was always "yes, but..." or "not just yet". This summer while in Yellowstone we knew we were ready to adopt again. My prayer to God had always been that when and if we were to adopt again that God would move us through Tom, make him the one to say "this is what we need to do". Who would have guessed that God would answer our prayers around a campfire in Wyoming on a 2 week long family road trip (with 3 kids and a tent trailer minus water and electricity!!!). God certainly has one great sense of humor!! We made the commitment in our hearts to adopt by July . We also knew that we would adopt a boy which was shocking to both of us since we had always talked of adopting another little girl. We discussed all options and countries and prayed for God to direct our paths and guide us to where HE wanted us to be, We decided to petition for a little boy from China (Addie's response to this was- Yeah, I COULD have a brother from China, but I KNOW I have siblings in Africa). Adopting from China made the most sense- we LOVED China, we were comfortable with the adoption process, both of our adopted children would share a common heritage. It seemed to be the decision that made the most sense. But China said No. They had just gotten done changing a lot of rules about "who" qualified and it seems that we were not considered a "qualifying" family any longer. We went back to our research and really started looking into Ethiopia and really felt that was where God was leading us. After learning about Ethiopia (see info on Ethiopia page) we knew that was where God wanted us. He had obviously closed some big doors to get us there!! We were able to find an agency that we fell in love with that is run by a wonderful Christian man with a heart for the Ethiopian orphans. We sent in our application to begin our adoption with Hope Adoption Agency on Nov 5, 2007.

I'm only one. But still, I am one.I cannot do everything, but still, I can do something.And because I cannot do everything, I will not refuse to do the something that I can do.-- Edward Everett Hale